Here is another story from the Labrousse files – a two parter about one of my more ‘interesting’ cases:

“They’re killin’ him!   They have a knife and they are killin’ him!”  The call came in about 6:00 on an otherwise quiet Saturday morning. 

“Where are you?” the dispatcher asked.  The caller said, “Right on the corner of W 3^rd and 4^th St. they are in the front yard!   Hurry, they are going to kill him!”  The dispatcher could hear screaming in the background.

The dispatcher told the caller to stay on the line and sent out a “12-48 (our code for assault) with knife, more information to follow,” to all units. 

There were just the two of us, John and I, on Patrol and coming to the end of our shift we were pretty tired.  However, this was a real eye opener.  In our little town we don’t have much excitement.  There are two or three or four or five family fights a week and maybe a couple of bar fights, but, assaults with weapons are few and far between. 

To have a call of a knifing in progress was very unusual.  This was a “hot” call and one that every Police Officer both dreads and gets excited about, it is one of the reasons we became a police officer.  Adrenalin hit hard and my breath started coming quickly and my heart started pounding, hard.

I immediately put my lights and siren on and headed to the call, going as fast as I dared.  As it happened I was on the west side and about 10 blocks away and my partner was to the east and about 8 blocks away.  We would be there in seconds and needed more information, we needed to know what we were getting into, not that NOT knowing was slowing us down any.

The dispatcher later told us that she could hear someone screaming in the background, “they cut his throat!”  She could also hear a loud crying in the background that just suddenly stopped.  She asked how many people were there, the caller said “at least three or four Mexicans.” 

The dispatcher asked “Who did they kill?”   The caller was extremely upset and crying, she was saying over and over again that “They killed him!  They killed him!”  The dispatcher tried to calm her down, but, the caller was just too upset.

As we were arriving on scene, the dispatcher said “There are four Mexicans in the front yard, and the caller said they have killed him.”  

John and I arrived at the same time, from separate directions.  We came out of our cars quickly with guns drawn, using our cars and car doors as barricades.   The front yard had a three foot wood fence around the property and some shrubs between us and where the men were standing. 

We could see one man with a knife in his hand, it looked like it had blood on it and his shirt and hands were bloody.    There were two other men in the yard, one kinda bent over. 

All three men were looking at us with mouths open and eyes wide.  They looked at each other and back to us.  The man with the knife looked to be about 50 years old, the other two were in their 20’s.  They were surprised and scared. 

Jeremiah 17:7-8  Blessed is the man that trusteth in the Lord, and whose hope the Lord is.

⁸ For he shall be as a tree planted by the waters, and that spreadeth out her roots by the river, and shall not see when heat cometh, but her leaf shall be green; and shall not be careful in the year of drought, neither shall cease from yielding fruit.

The one thing we can be sure of, no matter the condition of country and personal issues, we have the assurance that our spiritual welfare is well taken care of by God.

His Holy Spirit is like that water, it continually flows, it continually refreshes.

For those of us that have been Christians for decades our roots go deep and absorb all the nutrients we need from that flow.

We become closer to God as the world confronts us, we know that He is there and will constantly bless and feed us. 

We reach out to Him, but He isn’t far because we have kept ourselves close to Him.

The Holy Spirit flowing is a blessing for those Christians who have recently found Him.  It feeds them and allows them to grow.  They can gain confidence in Him and in those that serve Him. 

They realize that He has kept the ‘old growth’ Christian through the years; they see the branches that have reached out to God and the leaves of blessings that He has provided for them.

They can grow under the canopy of the God given wisdom of Christians who have long relied on and received God’s Spirit, allowing Him to work within them.

Those in need of God will be drawn to the waters, drawn to the rest that it contains.  They will come among those that are sustained by the Spirit and will learn from them.  They too will find that the waters are good and that it will supply all their needs.

God’s waters, God’s Spirit will never dry up.  It cannot be diverted from its course; it cannot be dammed up by satan so it will not reach God’s people.

God waters are everything a thirsty man can want and will fill them with the goodness and the needed nutrients to lead a life in Him.

We can count on God, when we partake of His water we find a never ending source of refreshment for our souls.

Though the world may attack us, though satan may try and separate us from God, His Spirit is always flowing and always available to us.

The closer and longer we live for God, the deeper our roots go into Him and the harder it is for satan to rip us away from Him.

We are in difficult times, it will be getting worse.  We want to make sure that we are as close to God’s Spirit as we can be; we want to be able to fight the demonic forces of this world through a strong and fresh spirit within us. 

We want to be able to shade those that need reassurance and a time to grow.  God’s Spirit will flow from us and help them find and grow closer to God.

John 7:37-39  In the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried, saying, If any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink.

³⁸ He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water.

³⁹ (But this spake he of the Spirit, which they that believe on him should receive: for the Holy Ghost was not yet given; because that Jesus was not yet glorified.)

BUT WE have the Holy Spirit and WE have the ability and His Power to share our testimony with others – with the authority of God within us.

Let us fill up with God’s water so that we can give it out to others in need.

Later, Art :-)  

From the ColumbiaRiverGorgeous
May Our Good Lord Bless and Keep YOU....’til we meet again